Graphics chip sales indicate that the PC market is all set to stage a full recovery, according to a report from John Peddie Research.
Chip sales are a good indicator of the overall health of the PC market because they are bought up for manufacturing before boxes hit the shelves. When compared to the first quarter of 2009, shipments of graphics chips rose 31% to 98.3 million units during the three months to July, the report said.
A compound annual growth rate of 8% until 2013 was also forecast, partly impelled by increasing demand for graphics software programs and the expansion of traditional market segments like CAD/CAM thanks to new design approaches in automotive, aerospace, and architectural design.
Speaking of which, AMD has announced it’s ATI FirePro V8750 3D workstation graphics accelerator which it says offers four times the processing power of its rivals. Keen gamers might want to note that it is unlikely to allow you to finally run Crysis on full spec because it was designed to “meet the extreme productivity needs of today’s CAD, Digital Content Creation (DCC) and oil and gas professionals”, rather than helping you blow up North Korean and alien baddies amid lush vegetation. It also costs around $3,000 for even the base configuration, though that may well not be enough to help the Cali-based firm avoid it’s 12th consecutive quarterly loss.
Tags: AMD, CAD, Crysis, design, graphics chip, PC
